The Tribes: Ascend website is now accepting signups for Hi-Rez Studios' revival of this beloved multiplayer shooter series. They offer client downloads and account registration for the free-to-play game, and here's word on what to expect:

Hi-Rez Studios, independent developer of AAA free-to-play online games, today announced the official release of Tribes: Ascend. The fast-paced, sci-fi multiplayer shooter has completed Beta testing and is now a live PC game available for digital download.

Tribes: Ascend is the world's fastest shooter. The game features jetpacks, skiing, vehicles, team-based gameplay, and cutting-edge graphics using Unreal 3 technology. With this official release, the game is available for download directly from the developer at www.tribesascend.com.

Recent additions include the CTF map Raindance, as well as a new game-mode called Capture and Hold. The Release build also includes a preview of the Custom Server functionality that will soon be available to players.

"For the past 15 months, we've had a very passionate dev team working hard toward this goal," said Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios COO. "Along the way some publishers told us modern gamers couldn't handle an FPS that was fast-paced and skill-based. We believe otherwise. Players seem to agree since we've had well over 500,000 join our Beta. We're excited to now grow the community further with the official release."

But other than the cosmetic stuff can you get the rest of the items through leveling up, even if it takes ages to get them?

Yes, you can get all the classes and weapons and stuff just through experience points. You can be plenty competitive with the defaults. The other weapons may suit your play style better though. Just depends on the sort of role you like to play on the team. Upgrades to items are fairly inexpensive exp-wise. The weapon unlocks can be kind of pricey though. I figure as long as I'm having fun playing, then I can pretty much ignore the experience points. If I build up enough to unlock something, then great. More to play with. I don't plan on spending any additional money after paying to get into the beta though.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)